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I have been using Green HDDs (e.g. Western Digital Green) since the Windows Home Server days without any issues. Now that I have migrated to Windows 8.1 with Storage Space, I would like to know if there are any real advantages to using a consumer NAS ready drive (e.g. Western Digital Red) for Storage Space?

It is my understanding that Green drives are bad for FreeNAS due it constantly want to put the drive in a "power saving, idle state." It causes a lot of unnecessary spin-ups when running FreeNAS. However, this does not apply to Windows 8.1 Storage Space, right?

My primary goal is the drive's longevity; I/O read/write is secondary.

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Since you're going for NAS storage setup, I would recommend the Red drive because WD Green is designed as a stand-alone storage drive, and also has save power and wear by spinning down when they can, which makes it a good choice for things like backup drives which are only in use periodically (e.g - once an hour).

WD Red on the other hand have RAID specific built-in features (like TLER – helps the drive recover faster in case of read/write error and the drive doesn’t drop off the RAID) that the Green drive doesn’t have. Their power consumption is really good, but unlike the Green which is designed to save power between uses, the Reds are designed to just spin constantly for continual use/availability. They're quiet, responsive, and have good speeds, and extended (3 year) warranty as well.

Hope this helps.

Cheers! :)

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    Thank you! Nice to see official WD reps on here answering questions! Do you know if these RAID specific built-in features make a difference on a NAS built using Windows 8.1 Storage Space? Since it technically isn't a true hardware RAID solution, and it just simply uses JBOD configuration.
    – rocfob
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 22:43
  • Thank you for the kind words! :) Yes, if the drives are in NAS machine, there will be a difference. For instance, NAS drives have low vibration and noise levels, and error recovery controls, that prevent drives from dropping off the RAID due to long recovery cycles.
    – Mighty_Miro_WD
    Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 11:29

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